Altered Melee! Need your ideas!

[Necziaxxus]

Hey Hive!,

As some of you may know, I am currently working on a campaign. However, progress was paused while some stuff happened in real life, but I am back with a set and dedicated mind. I thought about the campaign for a while, and decided to finish the techtrees before I begun the campaign.

As I begun the process of creating techtrees, I decided that I wanted to create an altered melee map or two with my races. It would help with balance and testing before the campaign itself was created.

I figured that replacing the four races with new races would be the right choice. So, I set to work creating the units and structures, upgrades and abilities, items and heroes.

What I need is your ideas. I'm currently working on the Human techtree. Any ideas for it or any of the other three would be extremely helpful. HOWEVER: I have a rule for the races. I want the units and structures to be generic (look at the Warcraft 2 techtrees. You have knights, archers, mages... generic sort of units that appear in most fantasy games), but I also want them to be unique and original in their spells and upgrades.

Human

Humans are a young race, yet who have the most populated and charted land. They fight with generic weaponry - swords, shields and lances; are efficient with mounted combat, and use holy and arcane magic when needed.

The Human techtree should be entirely comprised of human units.

Orcs

Orcs are an older race, and have the most land (however, most of this land is rocky desert, and isn't populated or charted). They are tribal and use weapons such as axes and spears. They rarely use mounts, and use shamanistic magic.

The Orc techtree should be mostly comprised of orc units. However, the orcs have been known to have alliances with other races such as:

- Trolls
Trolls live in mountainous areas, enslaving goblins for mining operations. Trolls in this world have appearances similar to Warcraft trolls, however they are otherwise different with their culture. They use primitive weapons such as axes and spears, and do not use magic at all. Some trolls have skills such as first aid and herbal remedies, but no magic is used. Think of these goblins as those from J.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, not the inventive kind from Warcraft.

- Ogres
Ogres live in mountainous areas like the Trolls. They use clubs or no weapons, have no magical skills and have no mounts. They have next to no intelligence and are used by the Orcs are beasts of war, fitting them with heavy iron armour and chains.

- Goblins
Although the Goblins aren't exactly allied to the Orcs, the Trolls that enslave them also force them to fight for their side. Thus, Goblins are more likely to be cheap, easily killed units that are able to be trained in huge groups.

UNDEAD RACE

I'm currently not sure what race to include here, but I'm thinking possibly demons or an undead race.

NIGHT ELVEN RACE

I'm currently not sure what race to include here, but I'm thinking a similar 'Wood Elf' race or 'Elven' race.

Any help would be appreciated =] I will post updates to the techtrees here so I can get feedback, and try to release the first altered melee map soon.

Thanks!,
Necziaxxus.

 

[Ardenian]

Humans

Well, for Human I think there are less ideas as you want only humans. I mean, what else than generic units exist for Humans ?
Anyway, here are my suggestions:

• Basic Units ( =Footman): Soldier
• Advanced Melee Unit ( =Knight): Knight
• Basic Ranged Unit ( =Sniper): Archer
• Advanced Ranged Unit: rifleman ( like technology progress, a tech upgrades archer)

• Basic Units: Novice ( Basic spells like heal and maybe hex)
• Advanced Unit: Adept ( same spells like novice, but more expensive and some more spells)
• Master Unit: Master Wizard ( no healing spells, but powerful magic powers)
• Unit: Sorceress ( has three stages like Novice, but different spells)

• Basic Units: Catapult
• Advanced Unit: Trebuchet ( high damage but has to be set up before it can attack; cannot attack close units)
• Master Unit: Cannon ( same like Rifleman, high tech required)
• Unit: Carriage ( mobile cart that has slots for items and can sell basic items like pots

For 'final' tech, I would suggest something like 'Holy Halls', a strong barrack that can train powerful, but expensive units:

• Paladin ( strong melee unit)
• Manipulator ( powerful magician)
• Bounty Hunter ( fast, devasting ranged unit)
• Protector ( no damage-putout, but great tank abilities)

Wood Elves

Focus on ranged units, I suggest.
Tier 1: Halls of the Wood: Trains different ranged units
Tier 1: Outpost: Trains some melee units ( focus lies on ranged and micro tho)
Tier 2: Mystic (?): Ancient place where magicians meet to get into contact with the nature
Tier 2: Protectorate: Trains advanced units, stronger and faster, but hardly more hp
Tier 3: Enting (?): Trains powerful creatures of the forest to aid the wood elves in battle

 

[Tierax]

how about for the undead focus on MASSIVE cheap armies of skelies (free food cost, like, 5hp a piece, low dmg, and summoned by necromancers on unlimited time)

but in turn, any unit that uses food tends to be expensive and high value.
so while you may very well have indomitable waves of skellies, zombies, and the like. its boils down to a meat shield for your higher tier units (like the necromancers themselves)

possibly focus more on spells and abilities with undead race?

EDIT: maybe have them focus on being opportunistic, say a dragon dies, thats how they get the hard hitting undead dragons, some orcs die and thats how they get stronger "shock trooper" style skellies, Or an arcane corpse for a skeletal mage, archers for rangers etc.
let there variation come from their foes losses?

 

[cleavinghammer]

Orc Warrior: Basic melee unit.

Orc Wolfrider: Fast melee unit.

Troll Axeman: Basic ranged unit.

Troll Slavemaster: Ranged unit. Gives speed/attack/attackspeed buffs to all Goblin units in range (one buff per slavemaster at a time). Has Ensnare.

Goblin Slave: Worker/Gatherer unit.

Goblin Mob: Weak melee unit with Evasion. When five or more Goblins are close to each other, they gain an attack bonus that stacks (but diminishes) with every additional goblin in range.

Goblin Archer: Weak ranged unit. Gets an attack speed bonus in groups.

Goblin Scout: Fast, fragile scouting unit with high vision, Wind Walk and True Sight.

Catapult: Ranged siege unit. Can be loaded with a single unit, which throws the unit at the target for massive area damage based on the unit's life. Non-goblin units die on impact, Goblins deal no damage but land at the target point.

Ogre: Heavy melee unit. Has Devour, Death Pact (well, renamed, different sfx, no mana, and longer cooldown) and Pulverize.

Ogre Smasher: Heavy melee unit that does high damage to buildings. Has Devour, Death Pact and Pulverize.

Ogre Rider: Goblin riding an Ogre to give it instructions. Gives attack buffs to nearby Ogre units. Has Devour, Death Pact and Pulverize.